Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am joining this debate on the matter of public importance on the failure of the Rudd Labor government to ensure the adequate provision of health services and road infrastructure for regional communities. Health and transport are vital to our regional communities. The only way investments in regional areas are delivered is when there are coalition governments and coalition representatives in state and federal parliaments. Labor never really worries about regional areas because it does not have to. It neglects most of the regional areas because it can. That is not where its power base lies. The coalition by its very definition is a broad partnership between city and country where regional votes have a dedicated role in setting the political agenda. There is no power incentive for Labor to deliver health and road infrastructure. That is the way it has always been historically in the rural and regional areas. That is why the voters of Lyne for many years have consistently returned National members of parliament to deliver for them someone who can be inside the government tent.

In the face of such Labor neglect of critical infrastructure in regional areas what options do the voters of Lyne have at the upcoming by-election? Labor has so little confidence in themselves as a new government that they are not even running a candidate. But then they hardly need to because, if the Independent candidate gets up, Labor will have won anyway. If the Independent wins, Labor wins. That is the simple message for those concerned about health and road infrastructure in regional areas.

The Labor government in power will not be threatened or even sent a message if an Independent wins in Lyne. Labor wins, because it is another seat taken away from the coalition that makes it harder for them to win government back. If the voters of Lyne are conservative voters, as many are, then voting Independent puts a conservative government further away, not closer. I do not believe that the voters of Lyne support the Rudd government. Neither should they.

Small business confidence under the Rudd government has collapsed to the lowest level ever. Working families are far worse off in Kevin Rudd’s economy than they were in John Howard’s. The Labor government has acted to increase costs on Australian families. They have increased the taxes on alcohol, cars, transport by trucks and travel, while forcing up the cost of health insurance. It is also clear that Labor’s emissions trading scheme will add to prices, particularly for electricity. The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said recently that they have ‘done as much as they physically could to provide additional help to the family budget’.

Rural and regional areas suffer the most neglect when their voice in the corridors of power is restricted to a single voice. Then it is a whisper, a lonely whisper down here that has to compete with the loud and strong voices of political parties. We are a party system of parliamentary democracy. We are that way for a very good reason. It is how things get done; it is how running a country is best organised. It is not perfect but it is the best way of doing it that mankind has been able to develop. When the coalition was in office net household wealth trebled from 1996 to 2007. Since November last year that wealth has gone backwards by five per cent. A vote for an Independent in Lyne is a vote for going backwards even quicker. If an Independent is elected in Lyne, that will give a tremendous boost to the Rudd Labor government. It will be a reward for neglecting regional health and road funding. Voting Independent helps Labor and puts the coalition another seat behind in the next federal election. So if the voters of Lyne want the coalition to take the reins of government, they must vote for the coalition candidate. Voting Independent is a luxury that regional health and road infrastructure simply cannot afford.